My New Favorite Networks: Brazen Careerist & Empire Avenue

I’m back from my mini-break. Sometimes we all need a break and I realized that when I couldn’t bring myself to do more than comment at a few blogs and extend myself past 140 characters using Twitter. I also have some personal needs to address and was exhausted (in a good way) after attending BlogHer ’10. More on that to follow. I have been behind the scenes making new online friends, increasing my networking, checking out the initiatives of women making empowering choices and conducting research.

So this site may seem more whimsical at first glance. It’s a social networking site that you join where people can buy and trade shares in your portfolio! You get five (5) invitations I love that it’s set up as a stock trade including a ticker counter. The company is based in Canada. Since it currently allows users to link their Twitter and Facebook accounts and is working with developers to build an API for phone applications there’s a lot of potential. From my observation there was heavy participation from users in Europe which is also a wonderful brdige when joining the numerous community groups available.

This site may seem more practical. You complete a profile as well and can sign up for groups based on interests and locations. The focus here is for those who wish to make business-oriented connections, job seekers, networking opportunities, internships, etc.

When you first join you get an automatic message from the site’s Community Manager to guide you through the completion process. That hands-on touch is not something I’ve seen with other social networking sites. In fact, the community has scheduled it’s first offline event today so people can meet to strategize and network in person at the Meetup To Crowdsource Your Career.

Since there’s heightened interest in the ways African-Americans use technology, navigate social networking sites, what devices they’re using and how they connect to the internet it’s always beneficial to be active participants. It’s even more valuable to be the creators and not only the end users.

Like this:

Khadija: That's why it's so important to meet people offline as well. Crowdsourcing or being "in the cloud" is bascially a new way of looking at groups using the internet. It's a segmentation and monitoring initiative. One of the reasons why I try to attend as many conference as I can is so that I do meet people to make real-life connections and to make sure some of these people using online monikers are actually real! I still have so much appreciation for these blogs and forums though.

Thanks for the info and the links. [I just learned a new word, "crowdsourcing." LOL!]

Some not fully-formed thoughts in response:

I think the new technology is great in terms of giving people the ability to leapfrog over various "gatekeepers" while pursuing their aspirations. However, I also think it's important to realize that, at some point, there has to be a real-world connection. Much of this online social networking stuff is beginning to give off the same vibe as the multitudes of dot.com start-ups during the late 90s/early 2000s dot.com bubble.